David Sarkies's review of Lord Jim (original) (raw)

Goodreads Choice Awards 2024 Opening Round

Discover new books on Goodreads

Meet your next favorite book

David Sarkies's Reviews > Lord Jim

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

Lord Jim
by

5856247

Running Away from One’s Past
4 October 2018

I remember watching a movie years ago when I didn’t have a job. It was about this guy who was trapped on the island of Borneo during World War II, and became involved with a native village where he ended up becoming king. Things went quite well for a while until the Japanese invaded the island and basically destroyed the village, despite the attempts of the natives to prevent them from doing so. In the end, while this man was still technically king, he had basically become king of nothing. The reason I raise this is because this book reminds me quite a lot of that particular movie.

Lord Jim begins with our protagonist, Jim, as a crewmember on a ship, taking a group of Muslims to Mecca for the Haj. The ship strikes something in the water, which we believe is the wreck of another ship (something that was all too common in those days) and starts taking on water. Now, tradition has it that the passengers should be allowed to escape first, followed by the crew, and finally by the captain. Well, this wasn’t the case here because the crew and the captain all flee leaving the passengers to their fate. Well, the problem was that the ship didn’t end up sinking, and the passengers didn’t end up dying, when the crew were rescued they were in big trouble.

I’m not entirely sure whether this is still the case today, but from the book we gather that this was a particularly big deal at the time Conrad was writing. In a way this was the law of the sea. Sure, some of the ideas were more tradition than they were law, but the thing was is that these duties were in place so that people would be comfortable traveling by sea, which was pretty dangerous as it was, without fear of being deserted by the only people that know anything about piloting a boat. Well, boats are pretty expensive, so I guess there is also that incentive, but when you hear of stories of refugees in modern times being set adrift in the Mediterranean without any guarantee of actually making it to Europe, it does make one wonder of the possibility of being taken for a ride when making a sea voyage.

Well, it seems that the admiralty took this action pretty seriously, especially since the first third of the book actually deals with Jim’s trial. Basically, he is found guilty of misconduct, and is no longer allowed to work on a boat. It is a pretty horrid penalty for somebody whose only skill is working on ships. Mind you, this is still the case today with many professions, particularly for those who are stripped of their privileges for misconduct, though ironically I have known lawyers that still seem to be able to work as lawyers despite the fact that they have been struck off the bar.

Yet these is an element of shame here, because it does not matter where Jim goes, he has been branded as a coward. I guess that is why he ends up on this island in Indonesia, where he becomes a lord. I do wonder whether things like this actually happened in reality – a white person comes across a tribe and decides to live with them, and the tribe, so enamoured by this person’s wisdom, decide to make them king. Apparently the movie I mentioned was a true story, but I can’t remember. This is not the case here, but rather it is Conrad exploring the nature of a man who has lost everything. Yet the story doesn’t end here, because once again the village is under threat. Basically some rouges have found it, and it comes down to the question of whether they loot it or not, and whether Jim lets them go free. Well, he decides to do just that, however his act of mercy really doesn’t produce a change in the men, but then again, it was always going to be a trap.

One interesting thing is that there seemed to be similarities with Heart of Darkness, but then again both books were written around the same time. However, in Lord Jim, we have our protagonist attempting to flee society for different reasons. He has brought shame on himself for his act of cowardice, and all he wants to do is run away. Ironically, one theme that seems to stick is how we simply cannot run away from our past, or from the people that haunt us. Jim and his cohorts thought that maybe, their passengers would die and they would be left free and clear. However, this is not the case, because they survived, and his act of cowardice was discovered. Yet, one could argue that he just followed along with everybody else, yet this is no excuse either – Jim had a choice to make, and he decided to follow along with the others than actually doing the right thing and remaining on board. The thing is that his act caught up with him, and even though he tried to hide on the island, it just seemed, that in the end, the world simply is not big enough.

Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read_Lord Jim_.

Sign In »

Reading Progress

September 6, 2018 –Started Reading

September 6, 2018 – Shelved

October 3, 2018 –Finished Reading

Comments

No comments have been added yet.

Add a reference:

Search for a book to add a reference

add: link cover

Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account.

Login animation